


Stars, They Rest In The Eye

by thezestycadenski (orphan_account)



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: Denial of Feelings, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Heavy Petting, Immortality, Love Confessions, Miscommunication, Mortality, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-13 19:58:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9140038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/thezestycadenski
Summary: Twenty years after the events of Te Fiti, Maui returns to Moana. She is not-so-pleasantly surprised to find out why.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So hey, first time posting in awhile and it's this. Moana is ~37 so is all legal and consenting adults and whatnot. Just wanted to get a feel for their characters, mostly written at 4am while tipsy and overcome with emotion.  
> *Side Note: The legal age of consent in NZ where I live is 16 so if I do write teenager-based things it will be with Mo as 16 at the LEAST. Barring the weirdness of a thousand year old demigod falling for a 16 yr old. But hey, it happened in Twilight (and many others)
> 
> Commission Info can be found at tumblr blog of the same name!
> 
> Please, let me know what you think!

It’s really not fair, Moana decides, with the taste of blood in her mouth. It’s not fair that she was Chosen, and Maui went and laughed in her face about it. It didn’t really matter when he flew away though, not when she calls out for him, after all the trials they went through. Life doesn’t discriminate.

Though in Maui’s case, Moana supposes, as she wipes the blood trailing down her cheek away, he got lucky.

Fairness and luck are vastly different.

She shrugs off the blow, tries not to let the pain seep into her bones. Sprints forward like her fragile  _ mortal  _ flesh isn’t screaming for forgiveness. Her feet make contact with the ashen shore of Te Fiti’s body. Te Fiti’s heart is firmly clenched in her hand, a sharp, solemn reminder of the promise she made her to her people and herself.

She would not lose, would never give up. She was  _ Moana _ .

~

The memory trails across her vision like an eel, slow and winding, filled with nostalgia.   
“Maui?” She whispers, sweeping her hair out of her eyes. She hears the creak of the wooden strats of their waka complaining under the weight of the demigod before she sees him looming above her.

“Yeah, kid?”

“Not a kid.” She reminds him, gesturing languidly to the beginnings of grey in her hair. His ageless face peers at her, faintly illuminated by the moonlight before he cracks a smile at her.

“Moana’s all grown up.” He jibes, sitting facing her, legs folded beneath his lava lava. The tattoos on his body writhe as they follow the lengths of his shifting muscle. Moana sits up to look at him, tries to ignore the thump of her heart as he watches her, an unusually thoughtful look on his face.

“Shut up,” She says fondly, remembering her original thought. “Listen. When I die…” She doesn’t need to look at him to hear his frown. It had never been about ‘ifs’ only ‘whens’ - when they were going to save the world, when Maui was going to invariably leave, when Moana realised that even in her teenage years she felt a deep connection to Maui, when he would return and stoke a fire in her heart had been simmering for two decades, and when Moana would not be there the next time he set foot on her island.

“When I die,” she forces herself to continue. “You must promise to protect my people.”

Maui scoffs, slaps a large hand on a meaty knee. “What do you think I’ve been doing all this time, princess?”

The old nickname stings, not because Maui sees her as a bratty child anymore, but because it reminds Moana of her youth. She hates growing feeble. Hates that she can’t spring out of bed anymore. Hates that Maui still looks the same as the first day she met, and now she’s the one who’s changing.

But she doesn’t hate Maui for it. She can’t bring herself to.

“I mean it!” She threatens, sticking a very decisive index finger in his face. “You must swear on your demigod status.”

Maui gives her a crooked soft grin, one that’s not normally seen unless Maui’s talking about his fishhook - but he’s looking right at Moana, down the line of her arm and right into her eyes, and Moana tries not to let the tremor that runs through her show, doesn’t really get a chance when Maui’s eyes glint with mischief seconds before he grabs her hand and flings her into the ocean.

They are only in the lagoon of Motonui, now empty and quiet, her people moved on to better islands and adventures, but she can almost hear the laughter of her tribe at the thought of their chief being tossed around by a demigod like a coconut salad. She only needs to hold her breathe for a few seconds before the bio luminescent cloud of the Ocean surrounds and lifts her, gently depositing her onto the hull of the canoe.

“And she’s back,” Maui’s voice is quiet, contemplative, and directly behind her. For such a large demigod he certainly moves quietly when he wants to, because Moana jumps and spins, the shock rippling through her system quelling the complaints of her joints, but it’s not helped when Maui grabs her by the waist, thick fingers holding her as delicately as a flower as he lifts her up to his eye level.

“Maui!” Moana yelps, ignoring the way heat soaks into her skin where his fingers touch and pools right between her hips. “Let me go! I am Moana, god damn it, I deserve better than this!”

Maui chuckles, but makes no move to let her down, rather he pulls her close into a hug, with a hint of awkwardness, a true marker of his godly status that human contact is unfamiliar to him. Moana’s face automatically rests on his shoulder, and her arms try to encircle what can only be described as a chest the same size of the trunk of the great Tane Mahuta.

“Moana,” Maui’s breath puffs at her hair and she feels electricity zip down her spine. Now is not the time to be caught up in some teenage crush, she scolds herself.  
  
“Maui?” She asks, pulling herself away and using his chest as leverage to put at least an inch of space between them so she can look him in the eyes. The gaze she finds there sends her into a flurry of emotions, most of which meld into anger. He’s staring at her with such longing, such shuttered pain and pride, that Moana thumps a fist against his chest. The miniature Maui tattoo that resides on his chest, that had just been hugging the miniature tattooed version of Moana, gives a start and jumps onto Maui’s bicep.

“Moana, I swear to you, to your tribe and to the Gods themselves,” Maui says, shrugging off her blow. “That I will protect your people wherever they may travel, so long as you remain by my side as a demigoddess… And as my wife.”

The last sentence leaves Moana breathless when she processes it. The best she can manage is spluttering. “What?”

Maui pulls her in so that she can see the determination loud in his face. “I will give you a favour, and in return you will become a demigoddess. And,” He shudders, taking a stabilising breath. “I wish to marry you.”

Moana stares at him through shuttered eyelids, unimpressed. “What a lovely joke,” she snarks. “Put me down.” The tone of her voice shuts down any argument Maui might have, she knows.

Maui recoils as though he’s been stung and sets her down, moving away and leaning against the sail, back turned on her.

Moana can only feel the fury nipping at her fingertips, her vision shaking as she stares as his hunched form. “What a brilliant joke, ha.ha.ha.” She spits, moving forward to jab at his shoulder blade with each ‘ha’. “Ohhhh, let’s make Moana a demigoddess! Let’s toy with her emotions! Let’s have a jolly old time making her immortal so she can outlive her people and watch them fade into the past! Let’s pretend we love her!” She’s screaming at this point, her vocal chords hurting as much as her heart does. There’s no way he can be serious. It’s just Maui being Maui, but she’s had enough. Had two decades of silence, of spent nights sat down on the beach, staring at the stars, hoping he hadn’t forgotten her. Now he’s here and he wants to toy with her?! Hell no.

Maui turns, his jaw roiling as he grinds his teeth. “You think I don’t love you?” He says lowly. His body is sagging, his fists loose by his sides. “You think I’m joking? Pretending?”

Moana can only pull at her hair in exasperation. “Of course!” She cries, letting out a choked laugh, throwing her hands to the heavens. All arousal had vanished with his proclamation, another bitter emotion to add to the pile. She turns to her old island, gestures to it. “This was my home that I left for  _ you _ , to find you and deliver you and you left me. You left me to defeat Te Ka by myself, but I don’t hold it against you because you came back. You came back and helped me and helped my people without being asked. Now, when I ask for help you throw this in my face?!” She turns back to him, only to find he’s inches away, crouching to meet her eyes with his brow furrowed. He gently takes her by the hand, ignoring the way her body trembles with anger, and pulls her in, for another hug she thinks, before his other hand is guiding her cheek and  _ oh _ .

His lips are dry against hers, but soft, not moving. It’s nice, but not what Moana is used to. She’d had two decades to get to learn how to be a woman. It drains the anger from her body, though. Her shoulders lower themselves, her body instantly quieting and submitting as hormones flow through her body. Her arms wrap themselves around Maui’s neck as far as they can manage, and she pulls herself in, feeling a little daring and letting her lips part. Maui takes the hint like a pig to pumpkin and presses forward, a lot more confident in his kissing than his hugging, Moana notes. She heaves a pleased sigh as Maui’s tongue slips into her mouth, his arms circle her waist, his fingers pressing into her hip bones in a delightful way. She pushes herself closer, lost to the sensations coursing through her body, and Maui grunts softly, just enough to make Moana aware of the heat pouring off him, it’s addicting, comforting, tantalising. She drags a hand down his chest, the thick muscles covered by a layer of fat, it’s familiar almost. When her fingers brush over his nipple he lets out a groan and Moana decides even her very active imagination couldn't match up to this over the years, the way he growls when she daringly dips her hand below the belt of his lava lava like  _ this _ , or when he nearly squishes the air out of her as his hands run over her body and the embarrassing high pitched whine she makes when his fingers drag along her bare spine.

She only finds it in herself to pull away when the boat rocks a little too violently for comfort. Her face is flushed red, hair mussed and body trembling. She’s comforted to see that Maui looks to be in the same state, his pupils large enough to swallow the sun he lassoed for the humans.

“Well,” She realises, with only a smidgen of horror, that she’s sitting very firmly in his lap, the top of her tapa pulled away from her skin. She hurries to pull herself together, but stops when Maui lays a hand on her wrist.

“You’re beautiful,” He breathes, eyes devouring every inch of new skin presented to him, looking like he’s aching to touch and lick and taste. Moana feels a new rush of heat hit her like a canoe caught sideways and looks away into the water surrounding them. She’s almost like a teenager again, except she’s not, and Maui knows this. The feeling leaves her light-headed. She’s free to do as she pleases with this demigod, the Great Maui. She never married, never sought to agree to the trading partnership with marriage tagged on the end like a binding contract.

Her people could miss her for one night, couldn’t they?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maui's POV + a small bit extra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> special thanks/shout out to zabchan & me+me for planting these seeds of a second chapter in my mind.  
> No smut, not quite yet, forgive me.  
> Please leave comments if you enjoyed it! They feed my life force.

Maui can only react in dumb silence as this old women takes his hand, presses a hongi to his forehead. While the greeting is nice, Maui has other issues to deal with. 

“Where's Moana?” He asks, as respectfully as he can with this middle aged lady clinging onto his arm, showering him with quiet smiles. She steps away, visibly taken aback, a small gasp leaving her mouth before she turns around, fists clenched by her sides.

“Maui…” That voice is unmistakable, and he has to look to the skies before looking back at her. He turns her around, tries to see past the wrinkles dotting her face, to the young girl he knows is still there. “Maui, it's me.”

Maui lets out a shuddering breath, a bark of laughter escaping him. “Toto reinga… Aue, Moana I'm sorry.” 

Moana smiles at him, shucks him across the shoulder. “It’s okay Maui, even demigods need some time off.”

Maui chuckles, tries to throw his shock to the side, takes Moana’s hand. “Come with me.”

“Wait,” She slips her hand out his grasp and it's like she's severing his heart chords. “I must tell my kaitohutohu.”

And then she's gone, not quite moving at a run, skirt rustling in the quiet night air. Maui waits, leaning against a coconut palm, running a hand through his hair as he ruminates.

“How long was I gone?” He asks himself, frowning, his Mini Maui tattoo coming to life on his chest and counting on his small inky fingers with a great scowl at Maui.

“Yeah, yeah.” He says when the tattoo’s count brings him to twenty years gone. “Not likely.” He bounces his tattoo with a pec twitch, shaking the representation of himself. The tattoo jumps to his back, hugging the tattoo of Moana on his shoulder blade.

Moana returns just as he finishes arguing with himself, dragging a kete full of food with her.

“So where to now?” She asks, giving a small bounce on her heels.

He gives her a raised eyebrow, nods his head towards the ocean.

“There's something going down at your old island.” he says, a plan already formulating in his mind as he shoots her a daring smirk.

She nods, resolute as always. “I'll get my canoe.”

~

She looks peaceful, lying near the edge of her raft, hand dangling in the calm water, Maui thinks, staring down at her from his perch on the mast. Age has touched her gracefully, not yet sagging her cheeks and gouging lines deep into her fragile skin.

He sighs as her eyes flicker open, staring up into the night sky, the look in her eyes lost and far away.

“Maui,” She whispers, but it carries, and as always, his body moves without even thinking, following her call. He leaps onto the raft floor with nimble feet, letting his weight sink as the strats complain.

“Yeah, kid.” He replies, feeling his heart swell in his chest. She is still filled with that fire he found so entertaining when they first met, albeit carried with more knowledge. He hasn't changed, he knows. It makes him feel sour, like his immortal soul withers with the thought, but at the sight of Moana he's filled with peace.

“Not a kid.” She showcases her hair with grey streaks and Maui smiles. She's definitely not anymore, and while Maui knows somehow in his blood that this strange thumping in his ears is his heart, he wants it to be love, he wants to scoop Moana up and fly away with her for an eternity.

“Moana’s all grown up.” He comments, sitting to appease the need in his heart to fly away. Moana sits up too, their legs almost but not quite touching.

It's yet another reminder for Maui of how they will live their lives, and it saddens his heart, makes his resolution stronger. He's not going to lose Moana to her mortality. Not someone as great as her.

It's selfish, he knows.  _ He's  _ selfish, but he doesn't care.

“Shut up,” She replies, a smile gracing her features. “Listen, when I die…”

Automatically Maui's mind balks. He's not going to think about that, doesn't feel equipped to handle the eventuality of Moana’s life. That's why he's going to make her a demigoddess, tonight.

“When I die,” her words reluctantly pull at his attention. “You must promise to protect my people.”

He smiles to himself, knows he mustn't say anything about the countless monsters and gods he'd faced to protect Moana from them. He shakes his head, slapping his hand against his thigh to punctuate his point.

“What do you think I've been doing all this time, princess?”

She sits up straighter, and Maui knows he's got it coming, watches as she waves a finger in his face. He's watching her lips as they move, not quite catching what she says but his mind whirrs in the background as she gives him a look, one he's seen a thousand times over, and it still strikes him to his core.

He panics then, make a split second decision and grabs her hand, throwing her over his shoulder into the water. It gives him time to jump to the mast, collect himself as he runs a rough hand through his hair.

“You got this, Maui,” he breathes. “Just tell her.”

She is placed back onto the raft by the Ocean, whom Maui gives a wave to. He leaps down silently onto the raft, behind her. He allows himself a moment of indulgence, a shiver passing across his skin as he feels the urge to caress her back. He holds himself still though, lets the words come as though they weren’t spoken over twenty years ago.

“And she’s back.”

He can’t help himself as she whips around to face him, he grabs her waist gently, driven by some force he can’t quite place, he pulls her close, wants so badly to meld their bodies together, but waits for her to finish her tirade against him before hugging her.

“Moana,” He sighs, feels her small mortal arms curl around his chest, doesn’t miss the tremor that runs through her body.

“Maui?” She pulls herself away and his body cries at the withdrawal. He just looks at her, tries hard to hide the emotions running through his blood but fails. It’s evident even to Moana, because her face runs through a hundred emotions before settling for that squint  _ again  _ and she slaps a hand against his chest. It doesn’t hurt though, but he can feel Mini-Maui jump at the intrusion and move to his bicep. He steels himself, lets his muscles relax, feels the words sit on his tongue like a lead weight.

“Moana, I swear to you, to your tribe and to the Gods themselves,”He says, wanting to wince as the words fall, slicing his tongue and filling his mouth with the taste of blood. “That I will protect your people wherever they may travel, so long as you remain by my side as a demigoddess… And as my wife.”

Moana’s head tilts, her eyes wide as she tries to decipher his words. “What?” He knows it’s supposed to come out indignant, but her question is soft to his ears, better than rejection. Disbelief is something he’s handled his whole life.

He pulls her closer, lets his emotions show on his face, sucks in his lower lip to stop the tremble.  “I will give you a favour, and in return you will become a demigoddess. And,” He shivers, knowing in his heart that while she may reject his offer of immortality, that is not the choice that will destroy him. “I wish to marry you.”   
Moana’s face darkens, and Maui feels his walls collapse. “What a lovely joke,” She snaps. “Put me down.”

He jerks his face away, like her words are a slap to the face. Her word is his command, to an extent, and he does as she says, unable to look at her, he turns away, letting the mast hold his weight as his heart shrivels in his chest.

“What a brilliant joke, ha.ha.ha.” Her finger jabs into his back, but each jab feels like a spear to the heart. “Ohhhh, let’s make Moana a demigoddess!” And the vitriol in her voice  _ hurts _ , makes Maui want to shift and take to the skies, scream his pain to Ranginui for cursing him in such a way. But he forces himself to listen to every words she says at him, voice rising with her anger. “Let’s toy with her emotions! Let’s have a jolly old time making her immortal so she can outlive her people and watch them fade into the past! Let’s pretend we love her!”

It’s a scream and Maui turns, his eyes dark. “You think I don’t love you?” He says lowly. His shoulders can hardly bear the weight he’s putting on himself, his fists are loose by his sides, lest he strike out. He hopes he can hold himself together, prove to Moana that it’s not a joke. “You think I’m joking? Pretending?”

Moana fists at her hair, her whole body vibrating with anger. “Of course!” She cries, letting out a choked laugh, throwing her hands to the heavens. She turns to her old island, away from Maui, and gestures to it. “This was my home that I left for you , to find you and deliver you and you left me. You left me to defeat Te Ka by myself, but I don’t hold it against you because you came back. You came back and helped me and helped my people without being asked. Now, when I ask for help you throw this in my face?!”

He steps forward, helpless in his emotion, feeling like a boy again as he faces down her rage and when she turns back to him he captures her hands and pulls her in, all thought vanishing from his mind as he presses a kiss to her lips in a desperate attempt to _show_ _her._

He expects a punch to the face, as he comes around to his senses, frozen in place until Moana opens her mouth a little, like an invitation, and Maui jumps at the chance, chasing after a taste he’d been wondering about for years. The sigh she gives when their tongues meet makes Maui’s skin prickle with feeling, his arms pulling her flush against him, hungry and desperate to feel her body against his. He loses his breath when she trails a teasing hand down his chest, fingers leaving a raft of goosebumps in their wake. Her fingers catch for a small moment on his nipple and Maui near loses his head, can only think in pulsing hot thoughts about the need flowing like lava in his veins.   
He just wants to touch, to feel and to know, to know she loves him as much as he loves her, he wants to prove himself, hopes that it’s conveyed in the touches he lays across her skin, reverent and delicate. The arch her back gives when Maui runs his fingers down her spine pleases him, peeling the top of her lava lava away from her skin, the whine dropping from her throat rushing straight south to strike him in the gut. Her lava lava pools around her hips,and Maui can feel his blood run red hot as his hands roam her body. He doesn’t want it to ever end, but when Moana pulls away after a particularly hefty twitch of his hips, he lets her. He’d much rather admire his handiwork, the glazed look in Moana’s eyes, her hair a mess and lips slick and red, inviting.

“Well,” She breathes, seeming to realise she’s in his lap, the connotations of the act making her quick to try to cover herself. He makes to stop her, laying a hand across the hand trying to pull her lava lava up, more than ready to pull away if she wishes it. She looks at him though, a question in her eyes.

“You’re beautiful.” He whispers, unable to tear his eyes away from the moonlight soaked skin laid bare before him. She blushes, looks to the water as if for guidance, and when she turns to look at him, there’s determination in her eyes. He feels like a boy again as she leans forward, slips her hand into his lava lava and finds his throbbing cock with ease. Her fingers only have to stroke once and he’s near putty.   
“Moana,” He grunts as she pushes him back onto the raft with the pointer finger to his shoulder. She slips her legs around his waist, and he can feel the heat, the wetness against his hip bones.

“Maui,” She says, looking as though she was already a goddess, the moonlight illuminating her from behind. “I accept your proposal, but not your offer of immortality. That will have to wait.” She smiles and Maui feels his heart burst into a thousand pieces from happiness.


End file.
